It’s probably not what the doctor would have ordered – catching the Robot Show in Tokyo right after two days of intense conferencing and sleep deprivation. But maybe it was exactly what I needed to take me completely over the adrenalin meter.
After all, we had spent two days at WIT Japan & North Asia talking about how technology was helping to deliver better Japanese experiences to foreign travellers and so we should go out and live it.
The Robot Show: Rated top-selling show for tourists and top-selling activity on Voyagin
And there’s no better show that delivers such a concentrated dose of instant gratification or rather hallucination than this show, which Voyagin, the tours & activities platform which had been speaking at our conference, says is their best-selling for travellers and whose CEO Masashi Takahashi had said I simply must try at least once.
The experience starts on the streets. Friday night in Shinjuku is bedlam. Neon lights flashing, crowds of people walking past like zombies – it felt like a scene from “Altered Carbon”, the Netflix series of warriors who live forever and return to life through “sleeves”.
There’s nothing subtle about what’s on offer. You don’t need to read Japanese or use Google Translate here. Everything is visual. Girlie shows – young girls in school uniforms seem to be all the rage. Gaming parlours – ping, ping ping; ramen joints – slurp, slurp, slurp; sushi restaurants – chop, chop, chop. One advertises, “ No Meat, No Life” – sizzle, sizzle, sizzle. A blonde-haired (not dyed) boy comes up to us and asks, “Do you want to drink till you’re out of your mind?” Guzzle, guzzle, guzzle.
We’re hungry, not thirsty. We can’t wait for the bento box that comes with the US$80 ticket. Cocktail food is never enough after two days of proper food deprivation. We squeeze ourselves into a sushi place and realise we’re never going to be able to eat-and-run in half an hour. We squeeze ourselves out, hoping four foreigners would go unnoticed for this strange behaviour.
We find a ramen place – one of those with a vending machine. Pick picture, tap, pay, get receipt, find seat and wait. Why can’t we buy air seats, hotels and tours & activities this way? It’s seamless and simple, we always talk about it in our travel conferences.
On the WIT stage, Takafumi Maruyama of Japan Airlines dreamt of a day when we can just “tap and fly” when he was asked for one wish for “Better Travel”.
The Robot Show is held in the basement. Walking down the stairs gives you an idea of the sensory overload that awaits – all mirror, no smoke, just lots of moving, psychedelic images. It feels a bit like Malice in Wonderland.
The space is tiny, shaped like an aircraft cabin, just slightly bigger. The audience sits on either side, the stage is the aisle space in between. LED walls flank both sides and there’s a non-stop barrage of moving, colourful images.
Eye-popping images to ensure you never get bored
“This is my idea of hell,” says Adam Weiss of 777 Ventures whose fund has invested into Flair, Canada’s only low cost airline, and World Airways which it is planning to turn into the US’ first long haul low cost carrier. He’s had half-an-hour of sleep in the last 24 hours and he’s the speaker who’s travelled the furthest from Miami to share his plans for creating the next generation digital airline.
“This will keep you awake,” I say, encouragingly. “Get you over the jetlag, lots of light, just what the doctor ordered.”
I was right about the keeping us awake bit.
The first performance was Taiko drumming on moving wildly-decorated floats with equally wildly-dressed performers. Then we had masked rock musicians playing amped-up electric guitars, and outlandishly-dressed dancers doing back flips.
The second was a sci-fi-meet-fantasy-meet-manga-meet-horror-meet-whatever-comes-into-our-mind with pandas, dinosaurs, turtles and crustaceans, armed with laser guns, giant swords and bazukas thrown into the sukiyaki plot. Oh, I forget the exploding pyrotechnics.
Beyond the wild performances, I was impressed by their monetisation model.
It’s mind-blogging that so much can happen in a very small space – the creativity that comes from limitations of space. Their use of tech is amazing. Those robots that light up. Those floats that move. The digital art which is infinitely scalable and merchandisable. Their monetisation model.
During breaks, the LED walls would light up like giant vending machines offering anything from popcorn to beer and churros. Staff then go around with carts.
It felt like just like being in an airline and I wondered why don’t airlines make inflight shopping more fun like this – first, there’s a lucky draw (by seat number) to see who wins a free popcorn and then, the carts roll out to tap into the excitement of the crowd.
I’d love to meet the producers and costume designers – they must have had such a ball putting this together. It’s got to be the weirdest show I’ve ever seen. Don’t look for themes, plots or narratives. This is not high art, not zen but zany, fun, wild. One of those things you’ve got to experience once.
I suggest you go when you’re in a zombie-like state of mind and need a perk-me-up.
• Get a taste of the Robot Show with these videos:
